I delivered a unique session as part of the Victorian Applied Learning Association’s annual conference last week, which was hosted under the theme of ‘Are You An Edupreneur?’ 

Usually, I present one or more interactive sessions, but this year the organisers asked me to develop a session which would share with other educators the strategies I use to share my ideas with the wider world. Or, in other words, how to spread a good idea.

The session ran for an hour, but here are the key points:

1. IDEA

• Are you passionate about this idea? Does this idea get you out of bed?
• Does your idea solve a problem? The best ideas, those which spread, are those which solve a problem for its customers/users, whether they know the problem or not.
• What difference does it make? That is, will this idea simply be different to other offerings in the marketplace, or will your idea make a difference to the results your customers are looking for?

2. MEDIUM

• Just one strategy here – Publish. Share your idea – blog, write a book (hard, softcover or digital format), articles, online tutorials, etc.

3. ASSET

• This step is all about moving from selling your time (producing income) and selling a result (producing an asset).
• Develop your idea around adding or giving enormous VALUE to your end users.
• Consider building a list of potential users, by integrating an optin page on your website, or collecting the contact details of people you share your idea with, etc.
• Finally, give, give, give and then ask for something. You must build a trusting relationship, one built on adding or giving something of value to people first. People can ‘smell the sell’ a mile away, so if the only reason you are communicating with folks is to sell them something, you’ll lose all credibility.

There is a lot more to share in this realm, but this is the model I have used very successfully for many of my enterprises.

Please contact me if you’d like to know more about how to spread a good idea.

Contributor Mark